MIX CHALLENGE - MC088 October 2022 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

To quickly answer your question, @scottfitz:
Creative effect usage is allowed, as long as it fits the mix and doesn't stray too much from the original concept of the production.

Please check again what both the Song Provider and I (host) wrote in post #002. I know this feels vague, but this is also a gut instinct situation. If things have gotten a bit too crazy, yet you managed to be selected for Mix Round 2, you could always be asked to "dial it back".

It is your task to provide your own spin to a mix -- so feel free try things, see where this goes.

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 7 days left to submit your mix.


Please keep in mind - this is a rare chance to work on such a production with barely any limitations on creative effect usage, as the majority of the content we're getting offered is mostly Pop/Rock oriented. So don't let this chance to go waste.

[jake sg]

Hi Guys,

Please click below to listen to my mix

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15bUsbs ... sp=sharing

Cubase 7.5
Gainstaging
PSP Triplemeter
Compressor
PAZ Frequency
API 560 Stereo
MonotoStereo
Roomworks
Pulse Tec EQ
L3 Multimaxizer
SonarWorks Reference
Youlean Loudness
Maserati DRM Stereo

Mostly im using all the plugins as mentioned above

Thank you

[LowlandsWave]

Nice opportunity to work on a house track, "ik ben niet zo'n huisman ..." Thanx to @Mister Fox and @EatMe for making this mixing competition possible. "Eet smakelijk" Sir Eatme.

Here's my mix: LowlandsWave mix

Started off by setting the input gain per track -> gain hitting the plugins at about 0 Vu ( -18 dbfs), Klanghelm VU meter
All tracks were high and low passed -> standard Logic EQ
All tracks routed to a MixBus with a pultec eq (8k boost) and some tape saturation added, finished off by an SSL buscompressor

Added reverb to the snare noise track and some saturation/distortion to the snare track to make it pop out
Snare noise was inverted towards the first snare hit
Kick was treated with some bx-boom and pultec bass boost
Snare and kick routed to a parallel compression bus with SSL LMC+ compressor on it
Bass was supported by bx-subsynth -> routed to parallel compression bus
Synth's with little eq but added modulation
Synth's have a side chained compressor to groove with the kick

Synth's have added neutron exiter, automated to increase during track
Synth's

That's about it, hope you like it

[Tony Black]

Hello mixing friends!
I'm new here.

First of all, i'd like to thank all the staff and the song providers for this great initiative!
This forum is so cool! Love it.

Second...let me explain my process for this mix:

When i opened the multitrack i realized that the original modulations on synths were not working for me.
I decided to use the raw versions of them and apply my own modulations (very simple stuff like basic flanger, chorus and autopan).

I did almost nothing on the editing side, except making kick 2 some milliseconds longer to match the lenght of kick 1, otherwise regardless of my eq it was going to sound weaker on the low end compared to kick 1.
I also modified its attack by appling a fade in at the start of every sample. It was becoming too clicky when trying to push the hi frequencies on it.
Finally, i streteched the "whooshy" hat sound at the very end of the song to decay exactly on the grid.

In mixing my basic chain for channels was the Softube Console 1 SSL4000 emulation (gate/eq/compressor/saturation).

Then i used Arturia 1176 (FET style compressor), Tokyo Dawn NOVA (dynamic eq), Fab Filter Pro Q2 (linear eq).

I use 4 busses for majority of my mixes. Usually 3 with processing and 1 almost not processed.
In this case Bus A for drums and bass, Bus B for synth group 1, Bus C for synth group 2.
Bus D was not used for this mix.

The chain for my busses is the same for all of them: Softube Harmonics (saturator) + Vertigo VSC 2 (VCA style compressor).

Very similar chain on my mixbus: Softube Harmonics + Vertigo VSC 2 + Leapwing Audio Stage One (stereo widener).

FX used: Valhalla Plate on almost everything (except kick/bass) set based on the BPM of the song. 1/8 predelay. 1/1 overall lenght.
A 1/8 ValhallaDelay for the main synth was used also.

Automation was heavy in amount but subtle.
Faders, equalizers and some fxs.

Here's the link to my mix: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NmkYBN ... sp=sharing

Have a good listen

TB

[ari5to5]

Hi!

My mix here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tz05amdab226s ... 5.wav?dl=0 or https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xhMTil ... sp=sharing

My comments here:

Kick 1: high shelve boost 9 Db @ 51Hz, 8.5 db boost @ 46.5 Q 1, 3.5 db boost @ 55Hz Q 10/ 4 band split, different settings compression on each band (stock reaper compressor)/ grouped everything and applied vca compression (ratio 2, attack 30 ms, release auto)

Kick 2: same as above - different compression settings on each band

snr: grouped snr and noice and applied eq: -8.1db @ 327.4 Hz,
1. snr: FET type compressor, eq: high shelve -10.6 db @ 9.4 Khz, transient augmentation +6 , eq: low cut @160 Q 1.8, -3.2 db@316.6Hz, high shelve +3.3 @3.5 Khz
2. noise: eq: -4.9db @1500, -2.9 @6120, high shelve -5.7@13.7 Khz, reaper stock compressor ratio 1.5, att 12.6ms, rel 10ms

snapf finger: widener, transient augmentation +6, eq: low cut 251 Hz, -6.5 @2.5 Khz

closed h/h: parallel transient augmentation

open hh noise: high frequency saturation (8k and above), transient augmentation +3, sustain -24

bass: grouped both basses and applied compression triggered by the kick. other than that - flat

synth 1 alt dry: transient augmantation +2, eq: low cut 217, lowpass 6k, reaper stock comp: ratio 4.95, att 0.13 ms, rel 216ms, rms size 0

Track_01a_Superwave_p8_synth_alt-dry & Track_01b_SY77_8ba_piano_alt-dry: grouped and applied lowcut @ 180Hz. widening 10%.

Track_01c_E-piano: eq low shelve -11.5db @123.8

Track_01e_piano-fortissimo: eq: -10.3db @438Hz Q 0.4, +6.2 @2.5k Q 0.4, +8.1db @7.1k Q 0.4, stock reaper ping pong pan initial settings (.25, .75)

Track_01f_harp&flute: low cut @ 303Hz ,+6.2 @2.5k Q 0.4, +8.1db @7.1k Q 0.4

The above 3 were grouped and eq was applied as follow: low shelve +4.8 @db 204Hz, low cut @132Hz, high shelve +7.7db @ 7k.

Track_03_MauSynth1_lead_alt-dry: opto compressor, warm tape saturation with modulation, eq: low cut @ 183Hz.

[floodo]

Hi people, how's it going?
Well, I started this mix with the drums, sending the kicks to a bus, snares to another one and the rest of the percussions to a third one, all this I sent to a drums bus, the keyboards I divided them first in 2 buses separating the ones with more transients from the rest, I sent these 2 buses to a keyboards bus, the same I did with the bass joining both in a single buS, here I started mixing

KICKS: I solved phase cancellation problems with auto-align, there were no big eq movements, except in kick 2 that I decided to make a hi cut at 400hz approximately because kick 1 already gave me the punch I needed, I compressed each one with api 2500, in the kicks bus I used sigomakers kick tweak and parallel compression.
In the rest of the drums I only made frequency cuts where I needed it and nothing else.

KEYS: As I said before I divided the keyboards in 2 groups, beyond that, I only made cuts with fabfilter and unmasked frequencies to give place to each thing in the bus where I had the sounds with more transients I used a transient designer to boost them the main bus of keyboards I equalized and compressed as if it were a single instrument and also activated the cassette holder of studio one.

BASS : in the bass 1 I made a cut at 440hz because the middle and upper middle part would take the bass 2 which I raised with tdr nova the gain of the sides, I sent the 2 to a bus, eq, compression and saturation and with a compressor I made a sidechain to the kick.

Mixbus: first dynamic eq to control some peaks, use a ssl type eq to enhance mids and reduce a little mid highs, baxandall type eq to increase 2 db on the sides from the 7.1, the pun to create contrast in the low end, another dynamic eq for a little more control, Apunmask from apulsoft which is pure psychoacoustic magic, and finally tb_sibalance to control the harsh.
I tried to make everything sound as analog as possible, with studio one functions, the drums bus I put an emulation of an api preamp, on the keyboards a cassette emulation so they don't sound so much midi and on the masterbus an emulation of a neve console, I hope I didn't forget anything.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Saludos desde Arentina

mi mezcla -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1--LBTV ... on4fn/view

[MFTWC]

Hello there !!

I took all the chord tracks and sent them to a bus channel, light compression, used a filter for transition FX.

On the MauSynth1_lead I added the eventide crystals FX and I automated some eos2 reverb.

The Synth1_bass1 track I turned to mono, it then got sc compressed by the kick tracks.

The Synth1_bass2 got sc compressed by the kick tracks and the snare noise track.

On the Kick_drum_1 I added 3k to get some snap.

The Kick_drum_2 got sc compressed by kick drum 1.

On the snare tracks I added some lows on the noise track and snare track got some room reverb.

On the snapfinger track I used the fiedler audio stage for some stereo FX, then sc compressed by the snare noise track.

Closed_HiHat got panned to the left.

Open_HiHat_Noise got panned to the right, then I used some tempo-synced flanger for FX.



https://drive.google.com/file/d/1toJ0zy ... sp=sharing

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 3 days left to submit your mix.


Please keep in mind - this is a rare chance to work on such a production with barely any limitations on creative effect usage, as the majority of the content we're getting offered is mostly Pop/Rock oriented. So don't let this chance to go waste.

[maxovrdrive]

Here is my mix for this challenge. Thank you for the opportunity.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YkOxKs ... sp=sharing

DRUMS
- kicks got a transient controller
- got the usual EQ and comp
- snare had a DDL send for those "rolls"
- entire kit was sent to a parallel crush track and blended in to taste
BASS
- slight EQ for 02a
- 02b had an EQ, comp, and a flanger (very little); send to Spectre and blended the return to taste
01A-D
- buss has EQ, flanger, and limiter
- individual tracks had EQ and limiting
01EF
- EQ, saturation, and limiting
- individual tracks had a little EQ
SYNTH
- just a little widening
MASTER
- EQ and limiter